I don’t write in a journal everyday, but I have accumulated many entries over the past 50+ years beginning in 1966. Some items evolved into longer works. Among the leftovers little pieces survived. I thought a collection of these with a piece culled from the same date in a past year would make an interesting yearbook. The consistencies and inconsistencies of mind, skipping back and forth across time, provide varied perspectives. It is difficult to remember the context of the past we’ve lived; we also make suppositions about times that predate ourselves.

The few alterations from original drafts were to improve clarity. The worst of my work is not included. There remains enough mediocrity and immaturity to make me feel humble and you feel smart. There are also moments of accidental insight and incidental humor.

Author Stephen Crane referred to his little pieces as pills…apparently they were small and somewhat hard to swallow, but good for you.


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Monday, January 14, 2019

History is a foreign country


January 14, 2018

History is a foreign country
they do things differently there
They don’t allow tourists
Those who live there never left
those who left never return
Everyone tells you what it was like
but no two tell it the same
Nothing there ever changes
the stories always do
Lack of equipment made it simpler
I did not say easier
What do I know I left long ago
and I was with strangers before I went

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